WATCH: Coach Jans Media Session

STARKVILLE - Mississippi State basketball coach Chris Jans met with the media on Wednesday as the Bulldogs began summer workouts earlier this week.

2024-25 Mississippi State Men's Basketball Quotes
Media Session – June 5, 2024

Mississippi State Head Coach Chris Jans
Q: What are your hopes for Josh Hubbard and his offseason as he makes his jump from freshmen year to his sophomore year?
CJ: "I think a smile broke out of my face when you brought his name up. It's fun to talk about Josh. If you think about it, we haven't been on the floor with our guys since a week before finals. So, you're talking the end of April until yesterday. So, what they've done from the end of April until June 4th, that's quite a few days obviously."

"Certainly, every coach in America gives them [their players] an exit speech of, 'Hey, stay on your game. Keep working.' Some take it to heart, some don't. I'm 100 percent confident, even though I don't know because I'm not there with him, that Josh has continued to work on his game. He's strengthening his weaknesses and has spend time like he has for the majority of his life in trying to prepare himself for the season and get better and have that mentality."

"For me, and I've said this before, the jump that I want him to make is more from a leadership capacity. Josh has respect in the locker room. You can tell just by watching how his teammates treat him and communicate with him. Even, if it's us coaches every day or you media folks that watch us play or a fan, I mean if you're paying attention he had respect from his teammates. I thought it was pretty remarkable how he came in as a true freshman and had the kind of year individually and the impact that he had. But, in a way that the team and the returnees put their arms around him and accepted him, and he did it with such modesty and humbleness. That's why it worked the way it did."

"But, going forward for us to be as good as I think we all want to be, the ask of him is going to be more from a verbal leadership role rather than just by example all the time. He's going to have to find his voice even more. And, in this day and age in my opinion, it's hard to do. The guys are a little more politically correct with one another. It's cool because they get along well, and there's not as many maybe issues when it comes to competitive things than maybe it used to be. But, if you can get some guys to kind of step up a little bit, and he's the perfect candidate with his stature on the team, his game, and his work ethic. So, we've already had some talks about it, but we're going to have more as we get deeper into preparing for the season."

Q: How do you go about trying to establish expectations and culture when there are so many new pieces?
CJ: "Yeah, it's definitely different this year. Yesterday was our first day on the floor. That was our first day that we chose for our eight weeks to work out our guys with the NCAA limitations. You used to talk about the night before official practice being the night before Christmas, right? But, to be honest with you, it feels for me anyway like two nights ago was that night because you can practice so much more now leading up to the first official [practice] that you know who you got. So, now with access to them in the summer, getting on the floor for the first time as you're their coach and their Bulldogs and here's our team – it's exhilarating to get out there and see how they move in person and to watch them go through the drills that we're teaching them."

"So, it's a lot different because like you mentioned the year before, we had more main guys, if you will. We got plenty of guys returning this year but not as many starters or full rotation guys, as many as we did a year ago. So, we have more new players that are going to be vying for those roles. So, it's exciting that way to, kind of unwrap if you will the gifts and see what they're all about."

Q: What does your contract extension mean to you?
CJ: "I think they're going to expect us to win more [laughter]. But, in all seriousness, it just feels great to have the support like you mentioned from Dr. [Mark] Keenum and the powers that be. The athletic director, Zac Selmon, had a lot to do with it. We're very appreciative and excited to be here and to continue to build upon what we've started. You hearken back to when we got here, that's what we said we were going to do. We're going to make the NCAA Tournament. We're going to build teams each and every year with the goal of being a perennial NCAA Tournament at-large program. Fortunately, we've been able to do that."

"Certainly, we're not satisfied. The early exits aren't the plan. We raised our goals last year as a program for the first time for me and for any program that I've ever been in as a head coach in terms of what the end goal was for our team. So, we fell short of that. We'll continue to raise those goals that we have that we basically keep to ourselves in our locker room. But, it definitely helps with recruiting. It helps just for the staff, more than excited that they get more reassurance and stability. I just think it helps the program overall when things like that happen."

Q: Your team played against Riley Kugel when he was at Florida. He's a versatile player, how do you see him fitting into the team?
CJ: "Like you mentioned, I'm familiar with Riley because we competed against him the last couple of years. When you get involved with a portal kid especially, and he played against your team, it makes the process easier and quicker. I don't have to go watch a bunch of video. I don't have to go look at a bunch of analytics. Certainly, we do some of that with everybody, but it speeds up the process on our end pinning our ears back and saying, 'Let's go try to get this person to join us.'

"But, I think the word you mentioned, the versatility, I think it's something that he'll bring to the table. The game is becoming more and more positionless. We really changed how we played last year compared to our first year. I think that will continue to evolve to more of the positionless type basketball. Those medium size guys that can guard multiple positions and can play in all spots on the floor become more valuable."

"I think Riley eventually is someone, once he learns the system and gets his feet underneath him can be that kind of guy. He can stuff the stat sheet and do a lot of different things. For me and for him, and I'm not speaking out of turn because he knows this, the consistency department is something that we're hoping that we can establish with him in the summer. So, when we get to the fall and the practices which are longer and more rigorous, that he has that base and that will hopefully get onto the court for him. I think his inconsistency is something that maybe he has battled his first two years as a player in this league [at Florida]. We're hoping with his experience and his maturity that we're going to try to provide some things for him as well that he can be more of a consistent performer on game day."

Q: Do you have any update on filling the last assistant coach spot?
CJ: "It's going great. We've obviously had a ton of interest. It may seem like it's taking us a while, but in reality, I didn't deal with it for weeks. I told everyone on our staff, 'I don't want you spending time taking calls, just put it on me. I don't know what he's doing, I don't know what coach is doing. He's not dealing with it because we had better things that we needed to be spending our time on with putting our roster together, either with retention or recruiting new players.' So, the last three weeks, I've spent quite a bit of time in vetting guys and having conversations. We're getting closer and closer for that to be done."

Q: You guys had KeShawn Murphy enter the portal and then come out. What were the conversations with him like at that time, and how do you handle that situation as a coach?
CJ: "Yeah, fortunately, I think for all of us we've been through enough recruiting cycles now to, in your personal opinion, how you best handle those type of situations. From the time I got here to inheriting who we had. Some guys were on the fence of either coming back because they were in the portal or going into the portal."

"So, with Murph, I felt like we had an understanding of how we should handle it. In my opinion, we just try give them time and space. It's not a sales pitch. I always feel like at that point if you've had a young man in your program for a year, and you're recruiting him and selling him like a new recruit. Then, if I was a current player, I'd be looking at me like, 'What are you talking about? I just had 9-10 months around you every day of what it's going to be like.' I tell them that exactly what I'm telling you. I'm not going to recruit you again. You know who we are. We want you back, but I get it. If you feel like you need to look around, do some comparing and contrasting, I understand. We're going to give you the time and space. We love having you here. But, at the same time, the rules are the rules and the options are the options. So, that approach has served us well thus far. I know it was an exciting day when he [Murphy] basically told me that he was taking his name out of the portal, and he was going to be a Dawg. I'm very happy that he made that decision."

Q: What do you like about the two center additions [Jeremy Foumena and Michael Nwoko] from the transfer portal and the challenges of having to replace Tolu Smith III going into this year?
CJ: "Yeah, it's going to be a challenge for our program. Tolu Smith [III] has been a mainstay for us since I've been here. He's been a guy that put up a ton of points and rebounds and obviously played a ton of minutes. He was a big part of our success since we arrived. I talked about him a lot with you folks about how he's a better person than he is a player. That's about as big a compliment I think a coach can give one of his own players. So, there's big shoes to fill. They all know already that we're not asking any one of the two new guys or any returnee to be Tolu Smith."

"Now, we need some folks to step up and provide some production in the minutes that he played, but it doesn't necessarily have to be how Tolu or Jimmy [Bell Jr.] did it. It's going to be different. We're going to have to figure out exactly who they are and what they're made of. I'm excited about the challenge. I loved coaching Tolu and Jimmy, but they were older guys. These guys are young guys that are still growing and developing and figuring it out. For us to speed that process up and how much better can we get them from yesterday until gameday, and even from gameday until March. I'm excited about that challenge, and it's going to be a staff challenge. Certainly, they're going to have to do their part with showing up bright eyed and a bushy tailed and be ready to learn. The early returns, they'll be the type of sponges and possess the type of work ethic that they'll need to be able to do what I just described in terms of getting better and growing. There's a lot of work to do there for sure."

Q: We're getting Cameron [Matthews] back this year. How big is that in terms of a leadership role and someone in the locker room, and where can you see his game improve as he enters next season?
CJ: "Yeah I grabbed him yesterday and just real briefly said, 'This is a big offseason for you.' Right, everybody knows his athletic ability and his competitiveness. He plays with a fire, and he's got all those intangibles. He's off the chart that way. But, his skill level needs to improve, and now is the time. You've got months to put the time in and improve your game. For us, obviously it's crucial. But, more importantly for him and his future in basketball, it's more crucial for his career."

"It's just a matter of being disciplined. It's a matter of getting up those days where you don't feel like it, and not, 'I'll blow it off today, I'll do it tomorrow.' We all understand that in life and all the cliches and sayings that are out there. He's going to have to gravitate towards one of them, and it's going to have to guide him, if you will."

"It's a big offseason for him. We've got to get him where he can score better, make open shots. I think it changes his whole game big time if he's able to do that. I'm pretty confident as this point. It's easy now, we just started, but he's got to get his rhythm and his discipline to get in that gym as much as he can to be able to just expand his game. We talked about Josh [Hubbard] earlier. Certainly I think everyone knows Cam will be a big leader for us this year. Him and Josh, not that there can't be other people that lead in their own ways, but I think those two will be the guys in my opinion from day one that will help lead this basketball team."

Mississippi State University Athletics

WATCH: Coach Jans Media Session

Players Mentioned

Josh Hubbard

KeShawn Murphy

Tolu Smith III

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